Celebrating 10 years of “retirement”
For 20 years I worked for a major Canadian exporter, working my way from being Chief Accountant to Controller to Chief Financial Officer. It was a great job in a fantastic industry and I worked with mostly good people. We didn’t have a “corporate” culture, it was a very informal kind of culture where you knew that if you were being called into a “meeting” that there was something serious to discuss. Over the years we had our share of fights. There were a lot of swear words and sometimes stuff was thrown around. I remember once seeing a thrown banana stuck on a wall after an especially spirited argument. But we had a good team and bosses that cared.
After 20 years our parent company decided to sell the company when our bosses decided that they wanted to retire. We taken over by a Swiss company. The shoddy office we had outside the center was traded in for spiffy offices in downtown Montreal. I was the CFO, liaison to Swiss headquarters, and administrator of a handful of other Canadian holdings. I suddenly found myself in a spacious office with glass walls and views overlooking Montreal’s financial district. In the previous version of the company I had often worked in shorts and a t-shirt. In the new company image was everything. I was wearing fancy suits and ties.
The first 9 months were the most fun and exciting I’ve had in my career. Without the previous parent company backing us, we were starting new and I was responsible for setting up an accounting system and working with bankers, lawyers and tax accountants. I was paid a shitload of money.
It was once the honeymoon period was over – and routine set in – that things started to break down. Our Swiss owners were horrible managers and created friction within our group. Outside advisors (because they loved paying money to useless outside professionals who’s sole purpose was to stroke their egos) and a retinue of company men constantly undermined us. The independence we had been promised when we joined the new administration eroded with every passing day.
A year in, I knew I had no future in the company. The bosses still loved me at that point and there were even whisperings of moving me to Switzerland. But I had seen two senior people from our team beg for their jobs over the previous few months. I had been bothered by the glee it produced among our owners. There was discontent among employees and the office had become toxic.
My huge office, with those damn glass walls, felt like a prison.
It had just been a question of time. One day, what started with a minor squabble with my boss over discipling another employee (it was petty and I was against it) led to me blowing up. One afternoon changed everything. I could have sucked it up and handled it better – but by that point I was fed up.
It put the bull’s eye on me. I was asked to apologize. I said I wouldn’t. Weeks went by and my boss wouldn’t talk to me. Then I was handed a lawyers’ letter. I knew it had been coming. I was ready with my own lawyer.
It took a few months but it was just a question of time. One morning the company director came in and told me that it was to be my last day at work. I handed in my keys and company phone, waved my goodbyes and walked out. I had cleared out my desk weeks ago. I wasn’t going to be one of those employees doing the walk of shame with a box in their hands.
It was completely painless and I felt relief. I walked down the street to my lawyer’s office and told her what had happened. “You seem completely normal, most people come in here crying about losing their job” she said. In my mind I had been lucky. For 20 years I had worked for a great company with good people making fantastic money. I had worked for another year and a half for the new company where I had enjoyed my job for the first 9 months. And where I had made even more money. Now we were going to take them to court and get even more money. What did I have to cry about? On the contrary, I considered myself very lucky.
That was April of 2011. I was 44 and “retired”.
10 years ago but it seems forever. Over that time we’ve made a lot of changes: we left Canada to travel full-time, we sold our Montreal condo, I started this blog. We are now living in Spain. Hindsight is 20/20, but I look back now and wonder – would we ever have had the chance to do what we’ve done if I had continued working? What if that was the one and only opportunity we had to live the lifestyle we have been so fortunate to have?
As for my old company, their personnel has turned over more times than a baby changes diapers since I left. Nobody from the original team is around. None of that is a a surprise. It confirms everything I knew in my heart.
Friends sometimes ask me if I would ever want to work again. I would never work 9-5 in an office again. But I’ll admit I sometimes miss work: I miss the camaraderie of working with others, I miss new challenges. I get bored easily. And over my 20 years of working there were more good experiences than bad.
I don’t know what the future holds. But for now I’ll celebrate my 10 years of retirement.
Thanks for Reading!
Related: Flashback to 2008…and thoughts on life changes
Related: When People tell us that “we’re lucky” to Travel Full-time…
thanks for sharing your story Frank. its sad really what happened and that companies dont value a culture of support but prefer edicts and running it like it’s the royal family. but its pretty common I work in disability and you’d think it would be completely different but sadly it’s not. It’s not the same, but at the same time its mostly run from an office by people who dont actually know what happens on the floor. I have a plan. but I wont be retiring sadly until at least my 60s. i think if you found yourself working, unless it was just the ‘perfect’ company, you would soon realise you’ve been making the right calls for the last ten years on life. not that you dont now, but working again might just solidify your belief
Ha! Royal family. In my case you got that 100%.
I also think you’re right not working again. Sometimes I miss the challenge and working as part of a team. But like I said, I had pretty much an ideal job previously and longing for any aspect of the past can be like longing for a previous relationship – it can’t be replicated and if anything I might just be setting myself up for disappointment.
I have trouble picturing you as a staid and somber number-cruncher in a suit, Frank! After having gone through a similar experience, I know how it feels when new management takes over and the firings start. Unfortunately, I didn’t see it coming and had to do the humiliating “walk of shame.” However, things have a way of working out, I landed an even better job with a great group of people and stayed at that job for another 10 years. But, when new management came in, I hung on for a couple of years and put an exit plan in place too. Coincidentally, it was a very similar plan to yours as a full-time traveler and then, settling down in a foreign country. My only regret was, I didn’t do it years earlier (like you at 44) instead of wasting money on things I once thought were important. Silver linings for sure!
I remember you mentioning that you were a pharmacist Anita. Glad for you that it worked out for the better.
In the end we all learn that work is work, period. Lissette has been fired twice as well and in both cases she gave and gave and was fired because the boss played politics and she wasn’t going to play that game. Funny enough, in both our cases we had to deal with nepotism and people who inherited power but who didn’t know how to manage people.
But we all learn, both about ourselves and about others.
Hi Frank, intersting read! And congratulations on 10 years “retirement”. I hope you two are fine. Here in Germany vaccination is slow – that means no work for us at least until late summer. We are going to Margalef (near Barcelona) next Sunday for some hiking and climbing…..All the best from Berlin!
Hi Natascha! We are in the same boat in Spain – very slow vaccine rollout. But at least I see that you have managed to travel a bit. I hope you both are also fine, maybe one day our paths finally cross!
Congratulation Frank! Wishing you more decades to come. We are following your blog with great interest as we start our journey in 3 weeks. All the best!
Hi Levente!
I remember you writing from Victoria last year. So what’s the plan? And how are you entering Europe? (there’s a lot of restrictions in place right now). I’d be very interested in hearing about your journey and what you have planned.
Hi Frank,
Entering Europe is really complicated these days. Having dual citizenship (Canadian/Romanian) helps, and it is the only way possible at the moment. The plan is the spend the summer with family, get vaccinated and start traveling in Southern Europe early fall.
10 years, wee-hee. A lot has happened. I spent most of my working life in England, where I was lied to (we don’t do private pensions in England), cheated, ripped off and only found 2 people I could trust (they both renounced their birthright and walked out of the country because of the dishonesty). So became a graphic designer and self employed. Now, not much of a pension but I enjoy myself and have met some great people on the road whom I still relate to. Nearly 11 years, wonder what’s next….
Ah, Graphic designer! I can imagine that you enjoyed the creativity Ted.
It all comes down to the people. The right people can make going to work a pleasure, the wrong people just suck your will to live.
That’s a fantastic milestone!! Still hoping to meet up with you two one day. You have been so helpful with your blog on a move to Spain! We are hoping to get there this year with our visa in hand to get started.
Hi Alana!
Hope you and Joe doing well. If you have any questions don’t hesitate to write me personally 😉